569: Listen and Learn -- Strict Liability: Animals and Dangerous Activities (Part 2)

The basic rule for strict liability for abnormally dangerous activities is a defendant is strictly liable for damages caused to a plaintiff when engaging in an abnormally dangerous activity.

An abnormally dangerous activity is defined as an activity that, one, creates a foreseeable and highly significant risk of harm even when reasonable care is exercised by all actors, which is, two, not an activity of common usage in the community.

So that's the rule to memorize.

We need a dangerous activity that is also not common in the community, and based on that activity alone, we can pretty much foresee someone is at risk of getting significantly hurt.

But what about animals? With animals, we have a couple more nuances to add to our rules.

The first is about wild versus domestic animals.

When it comes to domestic animals, the rule is that the owner will not be strictly liable for harm caused unless the owner has knowledge of the animal's vicious propensities.

Domestic animals include pets like dogs and cats, although not all pets, as well as farm animals.

However, an owner of a wild animal, even if it's a pet, is subject to strict liability for harm caused by the animal regardless of safety precautions taken by the owner.

Animal owners are also strictly liable for trespass and resulting property damage if animals get out and the damage caused is reasonably foreseeable.

Now, don't forget that for strict liability to work as a tort, we need to have causation and damages.

So now that we're done with that quick review, let's jump into some additional hypos.